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PBSO: Man used crowbar to bash windshield in road rage incident

A road rage incident escalated quickly when a suburban West Palm Beach man went from honking and yelling to following a car into a parking lot and bashing in the car’s windshield with a crowbar in a matter of minutes, according to an arrest report.

A 36-year-old woman had her mother in the passenger seat and children in the backseat as she attempted to leave a McDonald’s parking lot on Military Trail on July 6.

The woman said she couldn’t turn right because of the heavy traffic, but the man in the car behind her — later identified as 54-year-old Anthony Ritz — began honking, swearing and telling her to move, the report said.

She then took a right onto Military Trail and almost immediately took another right into a plaza where her mother wanted to do some shopping.

As soon as she parked, she saw Ritz running toward her car, holding the crowbar, she told deputies

Ritz began hitting the passenger side of the windshield with the crowbar, causing glass shards to hit and cut the mother, the report said. Deputies found blood in the car from the cuts.

Neither of the children were injured.

Ritz then got back into his car and drove away.

Deputies ran the license plate and drove to the suburban West Palm Beach address listed, where they found his ex-girlfriend.

She told police that she had kicked Ritz out three days prior because of his “aggressive behavior,” the report said.

Ritz faces two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and two counts of culpable negligence. He remains in Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of $55,000 bail.